1. Field of the Invention
This invention has to do with cereal serving bowls, such as bowls used for serving breakfast cereal and milk.
2. Description of the State of the Art
Bowls of various sizes are used in the serving of breakfast cereals. The bowls will normally hold a quantity of cereal and a suitable liquid such as, but not limited to, milk.
It is known to provide bowls that have shapes augmenting the standard bowl shape. For instance, consider the following patents: “Cereal Bowl or the Like,” U.S. Des. 283,096; “Multi-Layered Cereal Bowl,” U.S. Des. 298,898; “Dish,” U.S. Pat. No. 1,520,402; “Cereal Bowl,” U.S. Pat. No. 2,207,417; “Cereal Bowl,” U.S. Des. 426,751 and “Milk and Cereal Bowl,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,275, all of these patents are herein incorporated by reference.
Although some of the bowls shown in the above patents are directed to the serving of cereal, none of the bowls encompass the advantages of the bowl presented herein. The bowls shown in the above patents have complex shapes that may prevent stacking of the bowls. The shape of the bowls may make the bowls difficult to clean and may subject the bowls to instability or fragility.
For instance, several of the bowls (see Des. 283,096; Des. 426,751; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,520,402) have a significant barrier between a first portion of the device and the portion where dry cereal is staged. Such a wall impedes the easy transfer of dry cereal from the cereal staging area into the milk-containing portion of the bowl.
The Roshau Des. 298,898 patent shows a complex structure that appears to be an unstable twin bowl unit whose method of use is not disclosed in the design patent. Its elevated bowl portion is deep with high walls and a broad base or floor that is significantly larger than the smaller bowl portion to which it is attached. This design may not be a free standing bowl. The elevated bowl portion may be heavier than the lower bowl portion especially when the extension is filled with dry cereal. To overcome this the lower bowl portion has been weighted to offset the weight of the upper bowl portion.
In one of the bowls mentioned above (Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 2,207,417) a hopper is provided. This design is impractical as cereal in the lowest section of the hopper will be in contact with milk in the bowl. This staged, now unintentionally milk-wetted cereal will be difficult to extract from the hopper element of the bowl resulting in a hopper outlet clogged with soggy cereal. Smith, the inventor of the cereal bowl of U.S. Pat. No. 2,207,417; recognizes this as a problem and states that there will be little, if any, liquid entering the hopper portion. In general this may not be true as the level of milk in the hopper will be at the same level as the milk in the bowl. It is suggested in Smith that there be only a small depth of milk in the bowl, only to the bottom edge of the hopper, however, such a shallow depth of milk will allow for only enough milk for a small serving of cereal. There may not be enough milk in the bowl portion to accommodate the cereal in the bowl and still have enough milk to accommodate the rest of the cereal in the hopper, unless the amount of staged dry cereal is very small amount of cereal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,275 is also a complex bowl as it has two detachable sections with one section provided with a perforated well that allows milk to enter the well. Dry cereal is then pushed into the well to expose the cereal to the milk in the well. This design is much more complex than the instant invention.
The applicant hereto provides a simpler and more elegant solution.